My advise to players is. Think out of the box, this looks but does not work like a normal city.
read up on the forums and wiki as well as you tube as much as you can about how this works.
Its a puzzle, not a normal game.
You have to be patient and plan ahead.

Hi all. I've played this through a few times on beta, and this is my experience...

Gameplay - pretty straightforward, but to progress through the research tree you need to keep tearing down your settlement to build cultural buildings, finishing a quest, then rebuilding to get the goods/copper coins you need for the next quest. A bit clumsy in my view. This is particularly noticeable when you get towards the end of the research tree where you start to build the clan house and the mead hall and immediately delete them just to meet the quest requirements. The immovable boulders in the playing field are challenging, but an interesting puzzle if you like that sort of thing.

Rewards - The Yggdrasil tree is going to take 8 months to a year to max out, but has quite good stats and there's no time pressure to get it. Emissaries are an interesting addition to the town hall; the first gives an extra fp. In my opinion the greater runestone is not worth all the hassle to max out. The time pressure to complete the questline to win upgrade fragments is enormous and you'd have to be online a lot to finish each settlement in the shortest time. Ok, so it gives 2fps a day at level 5, but getting it to level 5 is going to take months and months. My view is that you'd get more fps by spending a fraction of the time on visiting taverns and collecting incidents every day.

If the runestone didn't take such a big effort to upgrade I'd probably be more likely to play it, but as it stands I probably won't bother.

Rewards - The Yggdrasil tree is going to take 8 months to a year to max out, but has quite good stats and there's no time pressure to get it. Emissaries are an interesting addition to the town hall; the first gives an extra fp. In my opinion the greater runestone is not worth all the hassle to max out. The time pressure to complete the questline to win upgrade fragments is enormous and you'd have to be online a lot to finish each settlement in the shortest time. Ok, so it gives 2fps a day at level 5, but getting it to level 5 is going to take months and months. My view is that you'd get more fps by spending a fraction of the time on visiting taverns and collecting incidents every day.

Click to expand...

Agree with you here.
The tree and Emissaries are worth the effort, plus you dont have the time limits on them so you dont have to stress and can get them eventually if you are patient.
You can just go along and use the settlement as something extra to do whilst waiting for your main city to complete or if you're bored,
Plus if you do it enough, sooner or later you are going to get expert enough that you will start getting Runestone fragments.

I think for very serious players it wont be too great due to the time pressures, but if you look on it as something else to do and a bit of a challenge ( as i do now ) then its ok.

To complete the quest to gain maximum reward will definitely require diamonds, and lots of them. Clearly not worth that investment. I agree with Jack, this will be a place to dabble, but would be a mistake to think it is worth the effort.

To complete the quest to gain maximum reward will definitely require diamonds, and lots of them. Clearly not worth that investment

Click to expand...

Big note, any diamonds you spend on the settlement will be lost every time you start a new one, as everything reverts back to scratch.
So i would advise ( unless you have lots of cash to throw away ) thinking very carefully before spending diamonds.

Sounds interesting, although I'd like to know more about the big red alert. When a new settlement becomes available in far future (I hope) and I decide to pursue it, will I lose everything or "just" the expansions? Since apparently the upgradable buildings will not be maxed out in one run, it is understandable that we have some sort of reset, including expansions, but what about the so-called Emissaries? Will they be gone too?

Also, in this far future with a new settlement available, why one should have everything reset just by changing the active settlement? It's not like a blizzard would bury everything in the snow, right? Well, in the Vikings case could be :p

To get a fully levelled Yggdrasil tree you will need to complete the settlement 15 times. Only settlements 1, 3, 5, 6, 8-10, 12, and 15 are Yggdrasil rewards. The others give Emissaries and Emissaries slots in the Town Hall.
You will get 9 Runestone fragments if you finish in the fastest time. So you will need to finish 5 settlements in the fastest time to get a complete Runestone. The time to complete each settlement will decrease each time you complete one. Also where the impediments are placed is different for everyone and apart from the Shrine and Mead Brewery all the costs for unlocking the advancements will be different for everyone also but everyone will have to pay the same number of goods, 938.

Sounds interesting, although I'd like to know more about the big red alert. When a new settlement becomes available in far future (I hope) and I decide to pursue it, will I lose everything or "just" the expansions? Since apparently the upgradable buildings will not be maxed out in one run, it is understandable that we have some sort of reset, including expansions, but what about the so-called Emissaries? Will they be gone too?

Also, in this far future with a new settlement available, why one should have everything reset just by changing the active settlement? It's not like a blizzard would bury everything in the snow, right? Well, in the Vikings case could be :p

Click to expand...

Any rewards you gain............ You keep.
Anything you build in the settlement will be gone and you start a brand new one, This means all copper, goods, buildings, diplomacy and expansions.
Any diamonds you spent will be lost.
Emissaries you keep forever, Look at your main city hall, you will see a new tab labeled "Emissaries"
When you open it you will see a few blocks. When you gain an emissary you place them in the block,when you get more you either swap them or buy more blocks with diamonds, these you do not lose.

The settlement resets and you start all 20 quests again. There have been many comments and discussions on beta about how this is actually a contradiction, as the story line asks us to build a self sustaining village, yet by the end all we have its a bunch of buildings, most of which arent even connected by roads or producing.
This is just the way it has been designed. Perhaps when they do new types ( eg. Egyptians or others ) they may change it. Its something new and they probably ( hopefully ) are taking note of the interest and comments and may in the future change a few things.

Will try it out – but from the information and beta material available it appears as a somewhat re introduction of the game itself – and that might be good for newer players but for the old FoE folks not so much. If at least the tideous Tavern pop up window could be reduced to a single click like AID then some repetition time/click would be a bit balanced when having to manage yet another "city" – which apparently also needs some planning – like the game it self used to aquire. Honestly I am not to excited about this long term Quest addition to the game but ltes see. Overall it brings InnoGames back to the historical narrative which they prefer and after Vikiings there will be plenty of pre historic themes to add. With this addition I am for sure happy to have only two cities to manage and not 12.

Anyone can answer what the rewards for the quests are? Are they rewards for the Settlements(so like Copper coins, Diplomacy, etc) or are they rewards for our city like Forge Points and Supplies?
Thanks in advance

Will try it out – but from the information and beta material available it appears as a somewhat re introduction of the game itself – and that might be good for newer players but for the old FoE folks not so much. If at least the tideous Tavern pop up window could be reduced to a single click like AID then some repetition time/click would be a bit balanced when having to manage yet another "city" – which apparently also needs some planning

Click to expand...

You do need advance planning in this, you need to see what is required to unlock the next building and plan your village accordingly to try maximize production in minimal space and time. ( the time factor is only relevant if you are going to try get the max Rune stone asap. Otherwise you can take as long as you like )
No one can attack or plunder this village so you dont have to worry if your timing is out.
You actually only need about 3 - 5 minutes every few hrs ( depending what production times you choose ) Just collect and reset and go.
Its only once you reach your goal and have to reset or re plan that you need to take a bit longer.
I think many people on beta struggled the 1st run through, ( i sure as hell did lol )but started improving from there on. Its because you need to understand the mechanics of how it works, and no one can write an exact guide as everybody village is different, due to the obstacles etc.

Anyone can answer what the rewards for the quests are? Are they rewards for the Settlements(so like Copper coins, Diplomacy, etc) or are they rewards for our city like Forge Points and Supplies?
Thanks in advance

This is my 2nd run through, there are other players far ahead of me and probably have a much better plan and layout. This is just to give an idea.
The square blocks are goods ready for collection
Round shields are copper ready for collection
You need the copper to set your goods production ( same as in your city you would use coins or supplies )
The unconnected buildings are shacks and huts, the also produce copper, but much less than shrines so roads get disconnected to make space for more shrines.
That little hill ( left and below center ) is an impediment ( or obstacle ) they cannot be moved so you need to work around them. Trees and bushes are not obstacles.
There are a few blank spaces, these normally would have small runestones or clan totems to provide diplomacy ( basically same as happiness in normal city ) but i havent bothered as i will be re-arranging it tomorrow, to reset new productions for the next quest.